Wednesday, April 20, 2011

One Year Later, You'd Think The Deepwater Horizon Spill Never Happened At All

It was only a year ago today that the Deepwater Horizon oil well
ruptured in the Gulf of Mexico, and yet it seems as if the horrendous
damage it inflicted on people and wildlife in the region has all been
forgotten.

With everything Big Oil and the government have learned
in the year since the Gulf of Mexico disaster, could it happen again?
Absolutely, according to an Associated Press examination of the industry
and interviews with experts on the perils of deep-sea drilling.

The government has given the OK for oil exploration in treacherously
deep waters to resume, saying it is confident such drilling can be done
safely. The industry has given similar assurances. But there are still
serious questions in some quarters about whether the lessons of the BP
oil spill have been applied.

The industry "is ill-prepared at the least," said Charles Perrow, a
Yale University professor specializing in accidents involving high-risk
technologies. "I have seen no evidence that they have marshaled
containment efforts that are sufficient to deal with another major
spill. I don't think they have found ways to change the corporate
culture sufficiently to prevent future accidents."

The New Orleans Times-Picayune
reports that 101 oil-spill-related bills were introduced in the 111th
Congress, which came to a close in 2010. Exactly zero were enacted into
law. Another 15 have been introduced so far this year—none of which has
been acted upon by its committee of jurisdiction.

This is an abject failure on the part of the legislative branch when
obvious fixes remain on the table. Mandated liability limits for
economic damages incurred by local residents are shamefully low and no
mechanism is in place to ensure any fines BP or other responsible
parties are forced to pay would actually be returned to a region still
devastated by the companies’ negligence.

The limit on liability for economic impacts from an oil spill remains
just $75 million. BP recognized that its public relations disaster
would only be exacerbated without swift and visible action, so it agreed
to create a $20 billion escrow fund to pay claims arising from the
accident despite this embarrassingly low liability cap. Given Congress’s
reaction it seems BP’s move may have paid off for oil companies. If
they will “do the right thing” anyway, why bother changing the law?

He added: "There are so many opportunities for things to go wrong that major spills are unavoidable."

Sara Robinson has worked as an editor or columnist for several national magazines, on beats as varied as sports, travel, and the Olympics; and has contributed to over 80 computer games for EA, Lucasfilm, Disney, and many other companies. A native of California's High Sierra, she spent 20 years in Silicon Valley before moving to Vancouver, BC in 2004. She currently is pursuing an MS in Futures Studies at the University of Houston. You can reach her at srobinson@enginesofmischief.com.